Artwork by Emma Szabo While New Yorkers have had to grapple with an affordability crisis over the past decade, the city has seen a rise in luxury grocery stores. As well as being vital to our existence, food has always been an essential part of human social life, serving as a symbol of celebration and community. The latest social media and lifestyle marketing trends, however, show that food has also become a status symbol and the ultimate luxury item.  There isn't a more sign

Artwork by Jordan Baker There’s so much you can say by staring at someone while eating a hot dog. It can be flirty, or threatening, tender or humiliating. And Luca Guadagnino understands this better than any working director  today. In Guadagnino’s work food is given power and glory. It isn’t treated as a mere  prop. It performs, brings characters together, or helps them make discoveries about themselves. In his films, food becomes a vocabulary for longing and restraint, for

Over a phone propped up on the crowded counter of a kitchen dorm, a daughter interviews her restaurateur Mom (who also doubled as an elementary school lunch lady). Growing up in the restaurant business, she cooks up boiling stories and tasty opinions to share. Daughter:  “For many people–myself included–our parents are our first chefs. From cooking three-course holiday dinners to plating pop-tarts, mothers have their own cooking style and skill. My mom, who I have on call wit

Artwork by Rachel Genito Make America Healthy Again , or MAHA, is a Trumpian health initiative, spearheaded by RFK Jr.—a staunch anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist. MAHA began in the summer of 2024, before Trump was elected, when siblings Casey and Calley Means appeared on The Tucker Carlson Show  to discuss privatized health and America’s health crisis. Their points were relatively sound—they claimed that the system is rigged against the patient, and that modern m

Artwork by Oyku Derin Ersoy @oders0y

Artwork by Adetutu Ayodele @lessthantutu

Artwork by Chassidy Stephenson What happens when there is no longer any ‘food’ to supply the thought?  In 2015, two of Silicon Valley’s sweethearts, Sam Altman and Elon Musk (sigh), teamed up to spawn a love child from their shared hubris that the hard task of making the world a better place was vested upon them. This love child is generative AI, and in December of 2015, OpenAI was born.  Generative AI, which we are now unfortunately all too familiar with, is defined by Merri

Artwork by Sasha Lerman “Doesn’t soy mess with your hormones?” When my friend asked me this question while we both perused the alternative milk aisle at Trader Joe’s, I did a double take. Seven or eight years ago, “soyboy” was an insult commonly directed towards left-leaning men, implying that their consumption of soy had feminized them, and made them less deserving of respect.  The primary concern around soy was its possible effects on testosterone in men. The science that w

Artwork by Sophie Dunlap Beacon Quarterly Production The Edit Lab

Artwork by Oyku Derin Ersoy Children of immigrants are familiar with the silent ways our parents say I love you . A knock at your door followed by sliced fruit or a pot on the stove with your favorite meal.  My dad is the stoic type. In my twenty-one years, I have known him to be a man of very few words. Once I turned eighteen, that changed. I became a person then. I was rarely ever told that my parents were proud of me until I got older, and they started having to face the r

Krusty Krab 4/5 The Krusty Krab is a cute little place in the middle of fucking nowhere. I was honestly surprised to see people there, but I was soon to find out why. The squid-looking guy behind the counter has obviously been having a rough day. He didn’t even notice I was there. When I had finally gotten his attention, he put down his newspaper and slouched over the register. The phrase: “Welcome to the Krusty Krab, how can I take your order?” slowly meandered its way out o

Art by Jasmine Nguyen Agatha Pennington wiped a layer of sugared violet frosting from her pink trimmed apron in a secluded corner of the kitchen. The cake shop must be in tip-top shape for the arrival of the Volunteer.  Constance Pennington, the frontman of the sisters’ business, poked her head of frizzy grey and black hair into the kitchen. She donned the same frilly apron, this one trimmed with blue. There was a speck of a red stain on her shoulder, but there was no time to